Logic Is Goodness Pursued

We continue allowing our sense of Triadic Philosophy to collide with the thinking of Charles Sanders Peirce, arriving at expressions which reflect the journey from Reality through Ethics to Aesthetics.

A premise of Triadic Philosophy is that logic is goodness. This accords with the words below which are part of the substantial index Peirce provides on this journey.

What interests me are two expressions that seem synonyms in Peirce’s mind for what logic is about. The phrases are

‘a method of reasoning’

and

an advance in knowledge,

the latter an interpolation of Peirce’s precise words ‘advance knowledge’.

Regardless what Peirce may mean, Triadic Philosophy agrees logic is a means of reasoning. And ts purpose is indeed to advance knowledge.

Peirce concludes authority can’t advance knowledge. I agree.

If authority is what Dostoevsky means by the term in ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, it’s among the miracles he scourges, with miracle and mystery, as the essence of evil.

Peirce may not be as peremptory.

But even if authority is deemed true, merely because it has been held for some time, that’s shaky when it comes to advancing knowledge.

Peirce sets a high bar for the promise of logic. Triadic Philosophy has already revealed its sense of it.

Reason is consistent with logic.

Authority is rejected when it is a repository of binary thought and assumptions with no universal validity.

Peirce: CP 2.73 Cross-Ref:††

73. It may be the part of good sense for a person to employ a method of reasoning that he or she does not understand — say, for example, the method of least squares — on the recommendation of a respectable teacher; only it is not a scientific proceeding. Authority, from the nature of things, cannot advance knowledge.

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